Gerald Molen ... is claiming political bias because a documentary movie he produced this year isn't up for an Oscar, even though that film, 2016: Obama's America, made more money at the box office than the combined earning of the 15 films the Academy deemed eligible.

2016, a negative take on President Barack Obama co-written and directed by author Dinesh D'Souza, earned $33.4 million at the domestic box office. But its omission on the list of the 15 documentaries the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday would advance in the voting process makes it ineligible for an Oscar.

"Dinesh warned me this might happen," Molen said with a laugh Tuesday....

"I want to thank the Academy for not nominating our film," D'Souza joked. "By ignoring 2016, the top-performing box-office hit of 2012, and pretending that films like Searching for Sugar Man and This Is Not a Film are more deserving of an Oscar, our friends in Hollywood have removed any doubt average Americans may have had that liberal political ideology, not excellence, is the true standard of what receives awards." ...

Really, Dinesh? Hollywood is showing liberal bias by snubbing your movie in favor of This Is Not a Film? Do you even know the first thing about This Is Not a Film?

The internationally acclaimed director Jafar Panahi, a supporter of the 2009 election protests in Iran, was arrested in 2010 for "certain offenses" against the Islamic Republic. He was sentenced to a six-year prison term and a 20-year ban on filmmaking, and has since been awaiting the verdict of his appeal under house arrest in Tehran. During this time, he collaborated with documentarian Mojtaba Mir Tahmaseb to film a day of this experience (on a digital camera and, at some points, an iPhone). The result, This Is Not a Film, was smuggled into Cannes on a USB drive hidden inside a cake and Panahi has been unable to leave Iran to attend its various festival showings. Panahi attempts to stay in front of the camera in order not to disobey his sentence, while Mir Tahmaseb "directs" this underground project -- a dangerous undertaking, for he was arrested on September 17th for allegedly spying for BBC Persia. This film, a work of great courage, humor, and self-reflection, is an example of how art in Iran flourishes despite the nation's ever-restricted circumstances.